Chris Whiteside is the Conservative County Councillor for the Egremont North and St Bees Division of Cumbria County Council. The division includes St Bees, most of Moor Row, Bigrigg, Wood End, part of the Mirehouse area of Whitehaven, and the surrounding countryside.
Chris lives and works in Copeland with his wife and family.
Chris is a former member of Copeland Borough council, and an Honorary Alderman of the City and District of St Albans.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Hague reponds to Milliband smears

At the Labour conference, Foreign secretary David Milliband joined the dishonorable list of left-wingers who have tried to smear various political allies of the Conservatives in Europe with false charges of anti-semitism in the hope that some of the mud will stick to David Cameron. Miliband's speech included insults towards the Latvian Government, accusations of anti-Semitism against Polish politician Michal Kaminski and allegations against Eric Pickles.

William Hague responded yesterday, describing these smears made by David Miliband e as "disgraceful" and "cheap party spin," adding that they "represent a failure of his duty to promote Britain’s interests".

Hat tip to Iain Dale for quoting the statement from William, which reads as follows:

"David Miliband’s smears are disgraceful and represent a failure of his duty to promote Britain’s interests as Foreign Secretary. He has failed to check his facts. He has just insulted the Latvian Government, most of whose member parties have attended the commemoration of Latvia’s war dead.

Just because Latvia is a small country does not give the Foreign Secretary the right to put cheap party spin before the national interest.

His accusation of anti-Semitism against Michal Kaminski is shameful and is based on remarks which the Chief Rabbi of Poland has said were misrepresented. This kind of shoddy politics should be beneath a Foreign Secretary.

It is also indecent to allege that Eric Pickles, who has an admirable record campaigning against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, was defending the Waffen SS. Mr Miliband should withdraw that suggestion."